Liquid aqueous manual dishwashing agents are used in countless households. However, in particular with stubborn, encrusted or baked-on soiling, they reach their limits of usability because relatively long softening times and the application of fairly substantial mechanical forces are required in order to achieve a satisfactory cleaning result. If rapid cleaning is desired, further cleaning agents are accordingly used, for instance more strongly alkaline cleaning sprays or scouring agents. However, this is desirable from neither an economic nor an environmental standpoint. A further problem is the limited skin compatibility both of many conventional manual dishwashing agents and of the additionally used cleaning agents.
It has surprisingly now been found that an aqueous cleaning agent which contains a specific surfactant mixture and additionally has an elevated concentration of common salt, above the saturation point thereof, on the one hand, due to the abrasive action of the undissolved salt crystals, exhibits particularly good cleaning performance especially on stubborn soiling and, on the other hand, possesses very good skin compatibility even when only slightly diluted.
Water-soluble salts have long been used in cleaning agents for hard surfaces, for example for adjusting viscosity or as components of buffer systems. Suspended salt particles have, however, already also been used as abrasives. WO 2007/085410 A1 accordingly proposes a cleaning agent composition in which salt particles may be suspended thanks to an internal structure. The surfactant combination of fatty alcohol ether sulfate and at least one further surfactant is, however, not claimed therein. This agent was not observed to be gentle on the skin; cleaning performance on encrusted soiling is described as “satisfactory”.
EP 958340 B1 claims a surfactant-containing antibacterial cleaning composition with abrasive particles, which should preferably be salts. This agent should, however, contain no anionic surfactants. Good cleaning performance on baked-on greasy soiling was not found nor was the agent observed to be gentle on the skin.
The present invention accordingly provides an aqueous cleaning agent for hard surfaces which contains a surfactant combination of fatty alcohol ether sulfate and betaine surfactant and 10 to 40 wt. % of a water-soluble salt.
This cleaning agent is above all suitable as a manual dishwashing agent with which even stubborn, burnt-on or dried-on soiling may readily be removed. The present application accordingly also provides the use of the cleaning agent according to the invention for manual dishwashing.
The cleaning agent according to the invention furthermore has the advantage that it is washed out of a sponge more slowly than a comparable formulation with a smaller quantity of salt. Long retention in the sponge is in particular advantageous if the items to be washed are being cleaning under running water, since lower losses occur and thus greater efficiency is achieved.
Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.